Electronic Discovery Blog

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Electronic Discovery Blog covers information and issues relating to electronic discovery, including case summaries.

Author: Author Larry Westcott is a Towson, Md., attorney and a former information technology manager.

Blawg Related Categories: Civil Procedure • Evidence • Solo / Small Firm • Blawg 100

Recent Posts from Electronic Discovery Blog

Deliberate destruction of computer files, along with other discovery violations, leads to $5.2 million default judgment against defendant
The Southern New England Telephone Co. v. Global NAPS, Inc., 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 47986 (D. Conn. Jun. 23, 2008) One of the many discovery disputes in this litigation centered around the computer of defendant…
Court orders forensic specialist to search computer where producer fails to adequately search it
Canon U.S.A., Inc. v. S.A.M., Inc., 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 47712 (E.D. La. Jun. 20, 2008) In responding to initial discovery requests in July, 2007, defendant producer indicated that many documents contained in producer’s office…
Employee’s motion to quash granted where employer cannot establish that employee had no expectation of privacy in using employer’s computer system
Sprenger v. Virginia Tech, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 47115 (W.D. Va. Jun. 17, 2008) Requestor defendant employer subpoenaed third party producer to produce “all electronically stored information on all computers, laptops, PDA’s, portable media or…
Maryland State Bar Convention presentation: Cautionary Tales of the Uses and Abuses of E-Discovery
On Friday, June 13, 2008, I was privileged to serve on an e-discovery panel with Hon. Joseph F. Murphy, Jr., Maryland Court of Appeals, Hon. Dennis M. Sweeney, Circuit Court for Howard County (retired), and…
Court finds producer’s “inadvertent mistakes” not credible; orders monetary and non-monetary sanctions
R&R Sails Inc. v. Insurance Co. of the State of Pennsylvania, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 44552 (S.D. Cal. Apr. 18, 2008) In July, 2007, requestor served a request for production of documents, which defined a…
Producer waives privilege for electronic documents because the documents were voluntarily produced
Victor Stanley, Inc. v. Creative Pipe, Inc., 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 42025 (D. Md. May 29, 2008) After an initial paper production was deemed inadequate by plaintiff requestor, the court ordered the parties’ forensic experts…
Some pitfalls of data collection
Noted e-discovery technologist Craig Ball writes on Law.com regarding a data collection effort using Microsoft’s Robocopy which was intended to quickly and efficiently harvest electronic documents intact, including metadata. Their efforts did not exactly turn…
Request for e-mails to ISP quashed as violative of Electronic Communications Privacy Act
In re Subpoena Duces Tecum to AOL, LLC, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 39349 (E.D. Va. Apr. 18, 2008) Requestor State Farm Fire & Cas. Co. had issued a subpoena to producer AOL seeking e-mails relating…
Request to make forensic copies of two entire servers found overbroad
Binary Semantics Ltd. v. Minitab, Inc., 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 36566 (M.D. Pa. May 5, 2008) Producer had produced two DVDs and one CD of information which it alleged were duplicates of information allegedly misappropriated…
Request for cost shifting denied where producer provides only cost estimate and statement that requested data is inaccessible
Mikron Industries, Inc. v. Hurd Windows & Doors, Inc., 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 35166 (W.D. Wash. Apr. 21, 2008) Producer’s motion for protective order sought only to shift costs for production of ESI. The court…